Polyethers are important items of commerce, being useful as monomers in polyurethane polymers which are useful as molding resins and spandex fibers, in adhesives, and for many other uses. One common method of making polyethers is the ring opening polymerization of cyclic ethers, such as oxiranes (epoxides), oxetanes, tetrahydrofurans, etc. It is known that oxiranes are particularly susceptible to such ring opening reactions such as polymerization, but other cyclic ethers typically require strong cationic (or other type) of catalysts.
One such type of catalyst include strong Bronsted acids, for example fuming sulfuric or fluorosulfonic acid. It is also known that highly fluorinated organic sulfonic acids are effective catalysts. These sulfonic acids may be low molecular weight compounds or may be part of polymers, particularly perfluorinated polymers; see for instance B. Elvers, et al., Ed., Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, 5th Ed., Vol. A21, VCH Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Weinheim, 1992, p. 583-584; H. Mark, et al., Ed., Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and Engineering, 2nd Ed., Vol. 16, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1989, p. 658-668; and U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,120,903; 4,139,567; 4,153,786; 4,163,115; 5,118,869; and 5,130,470. However, with such perfluorinated polymers polymerization, rates often tend to be relatively slow. One advantage of using such polymeric sulfonic acids is that if the sulfonic acid containing polymer is insoluble in the polymerization medium, the acid catalyst is easily separated from the polyether product.